Diane Pernet | Film Noir

It’s difficult to stand out in the front row, but Diane Pernet’s all-black ensemble, towering hair and lace mantilla keep the designer/editor/filmmaker/journalist from blending in among starlets and Voguettes. Pernet is the voice behind “A Shaded View of Fashion,” a fashion-forward blog that roots for young designers. Once a women’s-wear designer in New York, Pernet started her editorial career only after moving to Paris, her home now for 20 years — and the world’s most unforgiving fashion capital. “In New York, anything goes and who cares? People can be their own person and nobody’s judging you,” she says. “But Paris is judging you constantly.”

Pernet made a splash at the Web edition of French Elle, where she was “Dr. Diane,” style journalist for the masses, answering reader questions like where to find a transparent camouflage negligee (Dior, of course) and whether it’s O.K. to dress like an acrobat outside of the circus (anything goes with sparkles!). Today she writes about high-concept fashion on her blog and for Zoo magazine, where she’s an editor in chief. She also started a film festival three years ago — she majored in film at Temple University — and is now working with the 14-year-old style blogger Tavi to find the next best fashion film director. Even more than journalism, Pernet says, fashion film is “really the love of my life.”